Business Abroad: Bloom at the Top

The washday wonder of Britain is a youthful appliance maker who has convinced British housewives that his product is a knight in shining armor, ready to rescue them from drudgery—on the installment plan. “All women in England want carefree kitchens as near to the Americans’ as possible,” says John Bloom, 29—and he has got rich quick by giving them what they want. In just three years Bloom has captured 12% of Britain’s washing-machine market by borrowing U.S. mass production methods, of showing a fine disregard for conservative British business habits and a finer knack for underselling competitors.

Last week New Millionaire Bloom was busy toppling another bastion of British traditionalism. In a land where only 3% of the houses are centrally heated, Bloom’s Rolls Razor Ltd. has begun to sell thermostatically controlled heating units at prices that would warm even a Scotsman’s heart.

For a three-bedroom house, the Bloom heater (which electrically heats light oil) costs about $400, one-third as much as competing coal or oil systems.

“No Sin to Make a Profit.” “I’ve always been selling things,” bubbles Bloom, a tailor’s son who quit school at 16, now wears a stubble beard to cover his youth. As a Royal Air Force enlisted man, he started a bus service from his base to London that underpriced the R.A.F.’s own buses. When the bus line protested in court, the judge upheld Bloom with a declaration that has since become Bloom’s motto: “It’s no sin to make a profit.”

A stint of selling cut-rate Dutch washing machines door to door gave Bloom the idea of marketing his own Dutch washers. After many Dutch farms refused to manufacture for him, he finally made a deal with a plant in Utrecht and formed his own company. Then he advertised a Spartan automatic washer-dryer for $144 —40% below competitors’ prices. Bloom’s first ad pulled 8,000 inquiries, and soon he was selling 500 machines a week. Hoping to cut overhead by opening production lines in Britain, he next made a novel deal with Rolls Razor Ltd. (no kin to automaking Rolls-Royce): Bloom gave Rolls an order to make 25,000 washers, and Rolls in return made Bloom its managing director. Now the two firms are merging—with Bloom in control.

No Middleman. Bloom’s washer volume has more than doubled in the past nine months, now averages 1,700 a week; sales are up to an annual rate of $15 million. Bloom believes that “advertising is the key to this business,” splashes full-page newspaper ads twice weekly across Britain. But his prices are his biggest showpiece: by selling directly from factory to customer, Bloom can price his automatic washers at $115 to $165, 35% to 55% below competitors.

Realistically, Bloom concedes that he has already cornered about as much of the British washer market as he is apt to get. (“The two leaders—British Hoover and Hotpoint—have so much capital behind them that we couldn’t move much farther.”) In his new heater specialty, however, he faces virtually no effective competition. And some time in the future he plans to bring out a $118 dishwasher. “But the British aren’t ready for this yet,” he cautions. “It’s too modern.”